I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To Good Cheer
by solitaireclay07
Summary: The Marauders have a holiday tradition. They each have their own day to celebrate the holidays and the days range from playing pranks on Slytherins to building pillow forts. For their last year, Lily is invited to join in on the fesitivies. 4 PART STORY.
1. Pulling Pranks on Slytherins

Lily Evans was _livid_. She was positively, absolutely infuriated to the point where she couldn't think straight. Her vision was blurred with anger as she quickly made her way out of the portrait and down a flight of stairs, heading straight for the source of her wrath.

For awhile, she had thought that this year would be different. After all, she had made it to December without being mad at him.

Lily had thought he had changed. He had began acting responsibly ever since the beginning of the year. She thought there would be no more pranks, no stupid ideas, no running out after hours. He was Head Boy – he _knew _better than to walk around after hours when he was supposed to be patrolling.

But no, she was wrong.

When that fourth year had gone up to her and said that he heard the Marauders were going to play a prank on the Slytherins, she had almost lost it. Instead of taking it out on the fourth year, Lily hastily spun on her heel and walked out of the portrait hole.

She was nearing the dungeons when she caught the sound of muffled voices. Taking a few steps closer to the sound, she stopped at the corner of the corridor and took a glance around the corner to see if it was them.

She saw darkened outlines of a group of people were standing about ten meters away, huddled together and talking quickly.

"Here, take this-"

"No, you keep that. I have enough."

"You only have five pieces."

"That's enough."

"You can definitely use more. Here."

"It's getting all over my hands."

"Oh, stop complaining, Wormtail."

"But it's-"

"We'll put you in a red suit and a beard."

"I never said anything."

"Exactly."

Those voices confirmed her suspicions; the fourth year was telling the truth.

Without even thinking of the consequences, Lily strode right up to the group, jaw set in a hard line and her eyes narrowed in a glare.

Sirius saw her first; his eyes widened at the sight and he immediately began nudging James next to him. James turned around and didn't have time to say anything, because Lily was already right in front of him, opening her mouth to begin the chastising.

Lily found her words cut short as James's hand reached out and completely covered her mouth, only letting a muffled cry escape from her lips.

"Okay, I understand that you're here to yell at me," James began, speaking in quiet tones. "And you're welcome to do so afterward, but right now, you need stay quiet. We don't want the Slytherins to hear us, do we?"

Lily narrowed her eyes even more at him, restricted from frowning. James sighed, turning back to Sirius. "She's not going to cooperate."

Of course she wasn't going to cooperate. They were pulling a prank on the Slytherins and she was just supposed to stand there and let them? James was Head Boy – he wasn't supposed to be doing these things in the first place.

Sirius shrugged. "Just keep your hand there."

She glared at Sirius who just laughed underneath his breath.

"What about the Silencing Charm?" Peter asked in a hurried whisper.

Lily thought about trying to bite James's hand, but then realized that she couldn't even get her mouth open enough to use her teeth. James looked at her and then shook his head. "I don't want her to kill me when this is over with."

Lily glanced over at Remus, trying to make him see reason. Remus was very reasonable; she knew he didn't like this. But he just gave her a sympathetic look and didn't say anything.

She was about to start screaming against James's hand when Sirius took a step forward and swung around excitedly."Here they come!"

James took a step to the right and Lily followed him, eyes cautiously watching the scene in front of her.

Slytherins were coming out of the trap door leading into the common room, talking amongst themselves. She recognized all four of them. They were the Slytherin prefects who always gave her a hard time at the meetings.

James grinned and said, softly, "Five, four....three, two...one."

Something began to fall from the ceiling, landing on the Slytherins' heads. They shrieked, looking around wildly and covering their heads. Something black and round kept falling from the ceiling as the Slytherins began running down the opposite corridor, trying to escape the objects.

"Ho, ho, ho...you've been naughty!" A deep, loud voice suddenly rang out, seeming to come from the ceiling.

Lily tried to look up, but James's hand was forcing her to look ahead. After a couple moments, the Slytherins had disappeared from view and all that was left were the black pieces on the ground.

All four boys immediately burst into laughter and James finally let go of Lily. She rounded on them, folding her arm, complete with a glare. "What were you thinking? That was the most idiotic thing you could have done-"

James rolled his eyes, grabbing onto Lily's arm. "Hey, Lily, don't worry. It wasn't my day – it was Sirius's."

Lily raised an eyebrow, shrugging off James's hand. "What day are you talking about?"

Sirius grinned. "By now, you've surely heard of the Marauders' Days of Christmas." Sirius paused, taking in the look on Lily's face. "Okay, judging by your reaction, I guess that's a no. It's where all four of us have our own day. If it's your day, you pick something festive to do. It's a great deal of fun."

Lily frowned, gesturing behind her. "Pulling pranks on Slytherins is not fun."

Sirius snorted. "To you. But, to us, it's something to look forward to every year."

There was a long silence as Lily gave Sirius a disapproving look and tried to walk ahead of them. How could they think that that was fun? It was awful to ruin someone else's day for your enjoyment. What were they _thinking_?

"Hey-" Someone was pulling on her hand. With a loud sigh, Lily turned around to meet the bespectacled face of James Potter. He smiled at her, tugging slightly on her hand. "Do you want to join us this year?"

She should've said no. The horrified look on Sirius's face should've justified her answer of no. But Lily couldn't help but wonder what else they had planned. What did James and Remus and Peter have planned?

And so, she found herself saying an affirmative.

"Yes."

The massive grin on James's face could have possibly been more terrifying than her answer.

* * *

Originally supposed to be a one-shot, here is my Christmasy (or just a holiday, really) four-shot. It's based on the song of the same name by The Remus Lupins. Each chapter will be each Marauders' day and will probably be very short (only around 1,000 words or less). Chapters will be written quickly. I may even finish tomorrow or Thursday.

Thanks for reading!


	2. Making Pillow Forts

"Lily, make it stop!"

Lily rolled over, bringing her pillow and placing it over her head. Whoever was at the door didn't know when to stop. They kept knocking and knocking, sometimes in the tune of _God Rest Your Merry Hippogriffs_.

After two continuous minutes of knocking, Lily finally scrambled out of her covers and threw her pillow down on the floor.

The mystery knocker was going to get cursed if they didn't have a good reason for interrupting Lily Evans's sleep. It was two in the morning! Who was up at that time?

Running her hand through her hair, Lily flung open the door and gaped at who was standing in the door frame.

"There's a charm on the staircase," she said stupidly, pointing behind him.

He only grinned at her. "You said you wanted to join in on the festivities."

Lily blinked, once and then twice. "Now?" she emphasized. It was the middle of the night! They had school the next morning. There wasn't time for trips around the castle.

James nodded. "You might want to bring your pillow." Lily turned around, eying the pillow on the floor. The question was on the tip of her tongue, but she decided not to ask. She was just going to follow whatever they did. She was going to observe and watch all of the chaos.

They descended the staircase together. Lily couldn't help but wonder why the stairs beneath her weren't changing into a slide. Of course James Potter would find a way into the girls' dormitories. Probably learned it from Sirius.

"You look lovely," James commented, looking over at her ensemble.

Lily gave him a look. She knew he was trying to be funny, but she really didn't feel like talking about her pajama set. It wasn't anything fancy – just green flannel pant and shirt set. Her hair had to look awful though; she tried to comb through it with her fingers but failed.

When she reached the bottom step, her eyes widened at the sigh before her.

It was a fortress. And not just any regular fortress, but one made of _pillows_. There must have been hundreds of pillows piled up in the middle of the common room, stacked against each other to form walls.

She could tell that there wasn't any magic involved. Just numerous pillows creating the biggest pillow fort she'd ever seen.

When they were children, Lily used to make forts out of pillows with Petunia, having contests to see who could finish their side first. Lily always won and she never understood. Her pillows would stand upright even when Petunia's would fall down. Petunia would cry and call Lily a cheater and Lily would immediately feel guilty even though she didn't understand.

Lily yawned, walking around the outside of the fort, peering in the cracks to see Remus, Sirius, and Peter working in the inside.

She turned around to ask James a question and found him right behind her. Slightly startled, it took her awhile to finally say, "Whose idea was this?"

James took the pillow from her hands and walked around to the front. "Peter's. He really loves pillows, I guess." Stopping in the front entrance, James cupped his hands around his mouth and said, "Incoming!" Lily's pillow was thrown inside.

Lily ducked and walked inside, trying to count the number of pillows. Forty, sixty, eighty...it was never ending.

"Heads up!" A pillow hit her hand, and she quickly turned in the direction it came from. Sirius was staring back at her with a grin. "Hey Evans! Glad to see you this early morning! You look smashing, my dear."

Lily scoffed, trying to hide her amused smile. "Why are you building a fort at this time anyway?"

Sirius grabbed the pillow that he threw at Lily and placed it on top of a pile. "What better time is there? Nobody's down in the common room, no distractions, and it's just the Marauders – well, with the exception of you."

"Where's everyone else?"

Sirius pointed down one of the hallways. "Peter's down in the west wing. Remus was last seen traveling up the southeast wing into the east wing."

Lily shook her head. "You really went all out, didn't you?"

Sirius grinned. "Wouldn't be the Marauders if we didn't."

Lily made her way down one of the hallways which lead to the wall that was facing the boys' dormitories. She heard someone huffing and puffing and turned the corner to see Peter standing on his tiptoes and trying to place the pillow on a huge stack.

"Hey, Peter," Lily greeted him.

He turned around excitedly. "Isn't this the best idea ever?"

Lily waited to see if he was being serious before answering, "Yes, it's very creative."

Peter was practically bouncing on his toes as he turned back to the pillow stack, humming _The Mandrake's Carol_.

When she rounded the next corner, she saw James rushing up to her. "There you are..." He grabbed her arm and begin dragging her down the hallway.

"What are you-" Lily began.

He flashed her a grin. "We're celebrating with some hot chocolate."

Lily's interest was immediately piqued. Did he know that she had a weakness for hot chocolate? Was this some sort of elaborate prank? If the others were drinking it too, then it couldn't be a prank. They wouldn't pull a prank on her. She wasn't a Slytherin that deserved to have coal dropped on them.

Remus handed her a mug as soon as they exited the fortress. Lily eyed it cautiously, wondering if it was safe enough to drink.

"It's okay," Remus muttered. "I made it myself."

She didn't hesitate to take a sip of the chocolaty goodness. Perfect. Sitting down in front of the fire, she looked at the massive structure in front of her.

"You're all crazy," she said with a smile.

James sat next to her and gave her a friendly nudge. "You've got to admit – it's pretty amazing." Lily looked over at him and he broke out into a smile. "What?" she asked. Why would he looking at her with those amused eyes and struggling not to laugh?

James tilted his head at her and said, softly, "You have...here..." He leaned forward and she quirked an eyebrow at him. He took his thumb and gently wiped something off of her nose. "Hot chocolate," he explained, noticing the confused look on Lily's face.

He smiled, barely a couple centimeters away from her.

"Thanks," Lily said softly.

James's smile turned into a grin. "No problem."

Lily quickly turned away and looked back at the fortress. "So, how long is it going to take to take this down?"

James laughed. "Take it down? Who said anything about taking it down?"

Peter added, "Everyone has to find their way to the portrait hole tomorrow morning. It's the second part of the Pillow Fortress of Doom."

Lily made a sound of disbelief. "And this is your idea of holiday cheer?"

Remus shrugged. "It's the Marauders' way."

James nudged me again and Lily turned to look at him. He leaned forward and whispered, "A little mischief, a lot of trouble..." He laughed, his face so close that she could feel his breath and then emphasized, "...and all fun."


	3. Hanging Ornaments

It was two days before winter break, and Lily was trying to enjoy her dinner, but she was too distracted by the four boys sitting a few seats down from her.

She _knew _that they were planning on doing something tonight. By the way they were grinning secretively at each other, she was sure of it.

It was either James or Remus's idea tonight. If it was James's, then there was a chance of idiotic danger. However, if it was Remus's, then they were probably doing something like building pillow forts – with no ounce of danger whatsoever.

"Why are you staring at James Potter?" Lily vaguely heard Alice ask.

Lily mused over this for a few seconds. "I'm trying to figure something out."

Alice stared at her. "About James?"

Shrugging, Lily responded, "Sort of. Have you heard of their whole Marauders' Days of Christmas thing?"

Alice's face lit up. "Oh, like the pillow fort thing yesterday? It's genius."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "What do you know about it? Like...what do each of them do?"

"You've never paid attention before?" Alice asked, surprised.

"I didn't _want _to pay attention. I decided to ignore them altogether."

Alice smiled. "Well, in that case, Sirius likes to do something with the Slytherins every year. Mostly he pulls a new prank on them. I heard it had something to do with coal this year." Lily nodded, urging Alice to continue. "Um, Remus likes to do something very Christmasy that others can also enjoy. Peter – well, he does something random every year. Like pillow forts – who thinks of that? What 17-year-old would want to make a stack of pillows into-"

"_Alice_..." Lily interrupted her.

Alice blushed slightly. "Sorry. Oh, and James, he loves the holidays. He tries to make something festive that isn't supposed to be. He decorated Filch's office last year."

It finally made sense to Lily – Filch running around like a crazy man (even more so) last year and Remus looking all guilty when Lily was exhausted from trying to get the other prefects to help him.

"Why do you know this?" Lily asked.

Alice shrugged slightly. "I like watching it all every year. And this is the last year."

It _was_ their last year. They wouldn't be able to do this anymore – especially with the dark times coming. Lily let out an exasperated sigh; she hated endings.

Alice was looking at Lily with a confused expression. "Why do you _want _to know this?"

Before Lily could say anything, a hand landed on her shoulder, causing her to whip around.

James grinned at her reaction. "You coming?" He pointed to the archway where Remus, Sirius, and Peter were dressed in outside clothing, carrying big boxes.

Lily watched as a couple of Gryffindors noticed their conversation, listening in curiously. Alice pushed Lily lightly on the shoulder. "Oh, sure..." Placing her silverware down on her plate, she moved to grab her bookbag.

"No, I'll get it," Alice said. "You just have fun."

James chuckled at the tone of her voice and Lily frowned, but left her bookbag anyway. Now James was going to treat her differently.

Lily cautiously took a glance over at him. He grinned and joked, "Everyone's just a bit curious."

"Where are we going?" she quickly changed the subject. She didn't have the energy to deal with the whole student body trying to figure out why she was currently walked with James Potter. Even if it was something as innocent as watching their holiday festivities, it was still cause for gossip.

James handed her a jacket. "You'll need this."

Lily was about to say something when James covered her mouth again. Lily scrunched up her nose and gave him a look that portrayed every annoyed thought going through her head.

"Not here," James told her. "Nobody must know about it yet."

Lily rolled her eyes and, after James pulled his hand away, slowly put on the jacket.

They neared the group and Lily noticed how Sirius was jumping up and down. "Come on, Evans, hurry up. We need to get out there as soon as possible!" He pushed her without warning and began to lead her out of the doors.

Lily struggled to keep up with Sirius as he began trudging through the snow, out onto the grounds of Hogwarts. There was the Great Lake and the vast grounds of Hogwarts, but nothing special.

If it was Remus's day, then they were probably going to string up some lights outside for everyone to enjoy.

But, as soon as the boys stopped and placed their boxes on the ground, Lily knew it wasn't Remus's day. He would never come up with something as stupid as this.

The boxes were dumped out into the snow and the ornaments sunk slightly in the white powder. Round objects painted red and green and blue and yellow with intricate designs.

Lily bent down to retrieve one of the objects and looked up to realize that only three people stood in front of her.

"Hey, where did Peter go?" she asked, turning around to try to find the short boy.

Sirius shrugged. "He had to go get something."

Lily looked up at the willow tree in front of her. It was swaying slightly in the breeze – only because they weren't close enough yet for it to start attacking. She fingered the ornament in her hand nervously, wondering how this was going to work.

"You're all crazy," she said out loud.

Remus laughed, sifting through his box. "You said that last night." He softened at the look on her face. "But don't worry. We're not absolutely crazy."

Lily knew she should have trusted Remus. But this _was _crazy.

Only crazy people would try to decorate the Whomping Willow with ornaments.

James grinned and turned to Lily, that mischievous look in his eye. "You ready?"

She grimaced, but said, "If you must." When they died, she wasn't going to drag their bodies back up to the school. She was just going to leave them there -

He dropped the ornament in front of him, quickly brandishing his wand and placing a levitation charm on it before it hit the ground.

"You're going to regret this," Lily muttered before he began levitating the ornament over to the nearest branch.

Any time now...

But nothing happened. The tree just froze, allowing the ornament to hang on the branch and swing slightly.

"And you were saying?" James replied cheekily, before levitating another ornament.

Lily frowned and grabbed own her ornament in front of her. They had to be putting some charm on the ornaments or something – nothing would stop the Whomping Willow from killing them.

She hung the ornament on a lower branch, watching as the tree stood absolutely still.

James grinned at her. "Festive, huh?"

Lily just shook her head, trying to figure out why the Whomping Willow was so calm. "What did you do to the tree?"

"It's only temporary," James quickly explained, as he hung ten ornaments at the same time. "Just you wait."

Lily couldn't help but smile as the Whomping Willow was decorated with all different ornaments, including flashing lights around the base of the trunk. It wasn't even noticable as the violent tree – instead, it became a spectacle, a Christmas tree of sorts.

Something that Lily never thought would be possible.

Sirius placed the ornament on the tree and looked over at James. "Now, he's the _piece de resistance_..." Waving his hand, he performed a silent spell. "Fixing Charm. Now they won't fly off. Annnndddd..."

Lily took a step back as the Whomping Willow came to life, throwing its branches around violently, trying to get rid of the offending objects. But they stuck on the branches tight, barely swaying as the tree moved.

"Wow," Lily breathed, watching the display in front of her. Surely, it was a sight to be seen.

The crunching of snow behind her caused her to turn around abruptly. "Hey, what did I miss?" she saw Peter say.

"Something amazing," Lily responded with a small smile.

She could practically see James's grin without even looking.


	4. Decorating the Room

_Skip lunch and come to the common room. - JP_

Lily pocketed the note she received during breakfast and quickly made her way inside the portrait hole.

Before leaving, she had to explain to Alice why she was skipping lunch and it hadn't been an easy task. Alice was suspicious and immediately came to conclusions that were false.

Just because Lily wanted to spend some time helping the Marauders with their great plans for Christmas cheer, it didn't mean that there was more to it.

But Lily had to admit – this whole idea was growing on her. She had saw all of the smiles on everyone's faces when they looked out of the window and realized that there was a Christmas Willow outside. She knew everyone loved that massive pillow fort in the middle of the common room. And, even though she didn't want to admit it, even the prank on the Slytherins was pretty creative.

Even Dumbledore was amused. He looked over at the Gryffindor table with a smile, nodding to the four boys.

Lily suspected that Remus's idea had to do with making the common room festive. She had expected decorating – but nothing as elaborate as this. When she walked inside, she was greeted with a list written in Remus's handwriting of everything to do.

Lily raised an eyebrow at the length of the list. "All of this?" she questioned.

Remus smiled. "It's the last year. We had to double what we did last year."

She only shook her head amusedly and made her way over to the window that James was standing at. Resting her arms against the windowsill, she moved to face him. "What are you doing?" she asked with a smile.

He took a moment to respond, clearly surprised. "You're happy today."

Lily shrugged and smiled. "It's the holidays, we're decorating the common room, and it's a good day. What's not to be happy about?"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You know, Sirius was worried you'd bring down our cheerfulness."

Lily turned around and caught Sirius's gaze and gave her a confused look in return. "Really?"

"But I trusted that you wouldn't be a Scrooge," James exclaimed.

She frowned. "Well, thanks for comparing me to a grumpy, old man," she muttered.

James chuckled and said, "That's what Sirius said, not me. I knew you would be a help."

Lily smiled and looked back at the window James was decorating with strings of lights that weren't lit up. Taking out her wand, Lily pressed it against the glass and slowly, frost began to form from the tip of her wand, spreading out across the glass.

Lily reached out and drew a phoenix with her finger, adding a couple snowflakes to set the mood.

"Whoa." Sirius was standing behind them, staring at the window with wide eyes. "That's amazing. How did you do that?"

"Simple freezing charm with a bit of an adjustment," Lily explained.

Sirius began waving frantically. "Moony, you've got to see what Scrooge di- ..._ow_!"

Lily flexed her fingers, checking to make sure the impact didn't hurt them. "And you were saying?"

"See what...Lily did?" Sirius slowly corrected himself, holding his shoulder in pain.

James laughed and nudged his friend's shoulder, causing Sirius to wince and swat James away. Remus pushed his way through the fight and looked at the window pane.

"Genius," he muttered, turning to Lily. "You came up with this?"

"Like it?"

Remus turned away, hitting Sirius slightly for emphasis. "See, Lily didn't ruin everything."

Sirius stepped back, throwing out his arms in defense. "Can everyone stop hitting me? Okay, I understand – Lily helped us, James was right, it all turned out. I got it. It was a Christmas miracle - something we can all remember as a moral or something." He looked back down at his shoulder with a frown and murmured something about his "bruises."

Peter walked over. "He also thought you were going to want your own day."

Lily crossed her arms. "What if I do?"

"Aha, told you!" Sirius pointed an accusing finger in her direction, gesturing wildly. "You should have just left it to the regular Marauders' Days of Christmas."

James threw Sirius a glare and turned back to Lily. "What do you have in mind?"

Lily shrugged slightly, folding her arms and looking away in thought. "Oh, nothing special, really. Just something simple and nice."

Sirius exchanged a look with James. "Sounds do-able," James exclaimed, causing Sirius to frown.

Lily turned back toward him with a grin. "Great." She took a step forward and without another word, placed a hand against the back of his head and brought him down to meet her lips.

James didn't hesitate to bring her closer and return the kiss eagerly.

"Well..." Sirius exclaimed as the couple continued without any intentions of stopping. "At least _I _didn't have to do any extra work."

James tried to swat at him blindly, catching his shoulder. "_OWNOTAGAIN!" _Sirius cursed, adding in a few more choice words before stomping away to get out of danger.

"You're still going to help decorate, right?" Remus asked after a few awkward moments.

James broke off the kiss and smiled once he caught Lily's gaze. "Want to go decorate?" she asked.

James looked over at Remus."We're putting up mistletoe," he said to Remus before he locked eyes with Lily. "I want to get as many chances to kiss you as possible," he murmured with another kiss before casting a spell above them.

The lights began flashing merrily.

* * *

Well, that was slightly shorter than expected. It really didn't have a plot...it was just a fun, carefree, drama-less Christmas mini-story.

I urge you all to listen to The Remus Lupins song that this is based off of. It's on iTunes and you can listen to a preview.

Happy holidays everyone.


End file.
